Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Chen, Jun-Yuan
• Bottjer, David J.
• Oliveri, Paola
• Dornbos, Stephen Q.
• Gao, Feng
• Ruffins, Seth
• Chi, Huimei
• Li, Chia-Wei
• Davidson, Eric H.

Titel

Small Bilaterian Fossils from 40 to 55 Million Years before the Cambrian

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2004-07, Vol.305 (5681), p.218-222

Ort / Verlag

Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

Science Online_科学在线

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Ten phosphatized specimens of a small (<180 micrometers) animal displaying clear bilaterian features have been recovered from the Doushantuo Formation, China, dating from 40 to 55 million years before the Cambrian. Seen in sections, this animal (Vernanimalcula guizhouena gen. et sp. nov.) had paired coeloms extending the length of the gut; paired external pits that could be sense organs; bilateral, anterior-posterior organization; a ventrally directed anterior mouth with thick walled pharynx; and a triploblastic structure. The structural complexity is that of an adult rather than a larval form. These fossils provide the first evidence confirming the phylogenetic inference that Bilateria arose well before the Cambrian.